The Book of Enoch is one of the "apocryphal" books - those that were left out of the official biblical canon by the Roman Catholic Church. It was one of the "books" re-discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Biblical Archaeology Review (online) has been running a special feature on the Dead Sea Scrolls in honor of their 60th anniversary of "seeing the light of day." Here's a brief look at The Book of Enoch from BAR:
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) is a collection of texts composed between about 350 B.C.E. and the turn of the era. It is the earliest extant example of an apocalyptic blend of Israelite prophetic and wisdom theologies best known from the Book of Daniel, and it witnesses the variety within Israelite religion in the Greco-Roman period.
Two myths shape the Book of Enoch. The first, related to Genesis 6:1–4,* ascribes the origins of evil to the rebellion of certain angels who mated with women and begat a race of giants that devastated the earth and whose demonic spirits continue to produce sin and misery. According to the second myth, Enoch (as said in Genesis 5:21–24) was taken to heaven, where he learned the secrets of the universe and of the coming judgment.
The Enochic texts claim to be Enoch’s revelations transmitted through his son, Methuselah. The various parts of 1 Enoch were composed in Aramaic and translated into Greek, and from Greek into ancient Ethiopic, in which version alone the entire collection has survived.
Qumran Cave 4 yielded fragments of 11 Aramaic manuscripts of parts of 1 Enoch that cover perhaps one fifth of the Ethiopic text, as well as nine Aramaic manuscripts of "the Book of the Giants," a text not included in 1 Enoch.1 The 1 Enoch manuscripts attest both to how closely the Ethiopic text corresponds to its Aramaic prototypes in some places and to where it differs in others. The Giants fragments indicate that the Enochic tradition was richer than 1 Enoch suggests. Missing at Qumran are fragments of the Book of Parables (1 Enoch 37–71), a Jewish text that provides a context for New Testament "Son of Man" christology. The absence of the Book of Parables from Qumran probably indicates that this expression of Enochic theology developed in circles different from those directly ancestral to the group that collected the texts at Qumran. The other Enochic writings were authoritative at Qumran, however, and were popular among early Christian writers as well. The Enochic texts remain a canonical part of the Bible of the Ethiopian Church.
—George W.E. Nickelsburg, The University of Iowa
* This refers to the episode in Genesis when "the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them," thus creating a race of giants called the Nephilim.
1 For the Qumran fragments, see any comprehensive translation of the scrolls. For the whole of 1 Enoch, see George W.E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). For a commentary, see George W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of Enoch, Chapters 1–35, 81–108 (Hermeneia: Minneapolis, 2001).
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You can find the Book of Enoch online here.
There are lots of folks out there who claim that The Book of Enoch proves the existence of aliens and all kinds of other stuff, and that's the real reason it was left out of the Bible (you know, that conspiracy stuff again, sigh). Well, I don't believe in aliens and I don't believe that Enoch was taken up to Heaven without first having died - and I don't believe that the angels came down from Heaven and had children with the daughters of men, either, making a race of giants. Mankind didn't need any help to turn into a bunch of a-holes on their own! We did it ourselves, without any help from aliens/angels.
I do believe that The Book of Enoch is endlessly interesting as an historical document. I'm not going to pretend I've read the entire thing, darlings :) But I did find a few comments in the earliest chapters that caught my interest:
Ch. 7, Verse 10:
Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.
Ch. 8, Verse 3:
Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots.
My interest was in the comments about "dividing of roots and trees" and "dividers of roots." What on earth did that mean?
I first considered and then rejected that it had something to do with some sort of farming or agricultural practices, because the practice was mentioned in conjunction with "sorcery," "sorcerers" and "incantations." I thought it might have something to do with divination. I'm interested in ancient divinatory practices because there is research that suggests such practices were often closely-linked to the development of ancient board games and other gambling-type games (such as knuckle-bones and dice). Despite the biblical injunctions against the use of divination and fortune-telling that is a recurrent theme in the history of the ancient Israelites, there were accounts of approved usage of "lots" and in some ancient civilizations lots were made of wood - hence a linkage to "trees" or perhaps "tree roots."
Not much to go on. And, as usual, my research took me all over the place, and I learned some interesting things about subjects not at all related to what I wanted to find out! Not that I did thorough or even logically coherent research - I spent a few hours online only (but may revisit this subject privately at a later time). Do you want to know all the contortions I went through and false trails I followed to track down the little bit of information that led me to believe my initial suspicisions were correct? Nah - I won't bore you with that - this is a blog post, not a scholarly article!!!
I did learn that ancient Taoists practiced "root divination" using the roots of bamboo, and that although its first usage is not recorded, the practice is considered very ancient. Here is a brief description of the practice:
First, pray in front of the god and tell him your problem and ask for his guidance, then cast the two pieces of bamboo root on the ground and make a judgment according to whether the pieces land on the obverse or reverse side. There are three possibilities: two obverse, two reverse, and one obverse and one reverse. Two obverse sides are called positive bamboo roots: this result implies neither good nor bad luck. Two reverse sides are called negative bamboo roots, and are a sign of ill luck. The third possibility is called holy bamboo roots or successive bamboo roots, and indicates good luck, meaning that the god has accepted your request.
The practice may be linked to the "Heavenly Empress" and Guanyin - references to Chinese goddesses.
The practice has continued right into modern times. The photo at the beginning of this article is of "divination blocks" carved from bamboo root from a private collection.
Brief research into the online version of Strong's Hebrew Dictionary yielded some interesting results:
7080
qacamkaw-sam'
a primitive root; properly, to distribute, i.e. determine by lot or magical scroll; by implication, to divine:--divine(-r, -ation), prudent, soothsayer, use (divination).
7081
qecemkeh'-sem
from 'qacam' (7080); a lot: also divination (including its fee), oracle:--(reward of) divination, divine sentence, witchcraft.
7082
qacackaw-sas'
a primitive root; to lop off:--cut off
See also:
7059
qamatkaw-mat'
a primitive root; to pluck, i.e. destroy:--cut down, fill with wrinkles.
7060
qamalkaw-mal'
a primitive root; to wither:--hew down, wither.
7061
qamatskaw-mats'
a primitive root; to grasp with the hand:--take an handful.
The ancient Hebrew roots (pun!) obviously suggested the cutting down of trees and making blocks to use for divination, or the cutting up of tree roots to use for the same practice.
General information on Daoist bamboo root divination: http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/religious-activities&rituals/daoist-folk-customs/pg4-8-12.asp
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=342581
Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (online):
http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs
/FRMSTRHEB70.htm#S7080
The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch) is a collection of texts composed between about 350 B.C.E. and the turn of the era. It is the earliest extant example of an apocalyptic blend of Israelite prophetic and wisdom theologies best known from the Book of Daniel, and it witnesses the variety within Israelite religion in the Greco-Roman period.
Two myths shape the Book of Enoch. The first, related to Genesis 6:1–4,* ascribes the origins of evil to the rebellion of certain angels who mated with women and begat a race of giants that devastated the earth and whose demonic spirits continue to produce sin and misery. According to the second myth, Enoch (as said in Genesis 5:21–24) was taken to heaven, where he learned the secrets of the universe and of the coming judgment.
The Enochic texts claim to be Enoch’s revelations transmitted through his son, Methuselah. The various parts of 1 Enoch were composed in Aramaic and translated into Greek, and from Greek into ancient Ethiopic, in which version alone the entire collection has survived.
Qumran Cave 4 yielded fragments of 11 Aramaic manuscripts of parts of 1 Enoch that cover perhaps one fifth of the Ethiopic text, as well as nine Aramaic manuscripts of "the Book of the Giants," a text not included in 1 Enoch.1 The 1 Enoch manuscripts attest both to how closely the Ethiopic text corresponds to its Aramaic prototypes in some places and to where it differs in others. The Giants fragments indicate that the Enochic tradition was richer than 1 Enoch suggests. Missing at Qumran are fragments of the Book of Parables (1 Enoch 37–71), a Jewish text that provides a context for New Testament "Son of Man" christology. The absence of the Book of Parables from Qumran probably indicates that this expression of Enochic theology developed in circles different from those directly ancestral to the group that collected the texts at Qumran. The other Enochic writings were authoritative at Qumran, however, and were popular among early Christian writers as well. The Enochic texts remain a canonical part of the Bible of the Ethiopian Church.
—George W.E. Nickelsburg, The University of Iowa
* This refers to the episode in Genesis when "the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them," thus creating a race of giants called the Nephilim.
1 For the Qumran fragments, see any comprehensive translation of the scrolls. For the whole of 1 Enoch, see George W.E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). For a commentary, see George W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of Enoch, Chapters 1–35, 81–108 (Hermeneia: Minneapolis, 2001).
************************************************************************************
You can find the Book of Enoch online here.
There are lots of folks out there who claim that The Book of Enoch proves the existence of aliens and all kinds of other stuff, and that's the real reason it was left out of the Bible (you know, that conspiracy stuff again, sigh). Well, I don't believe in aliens and I don't believe that Enoch was taken up to Heaven without first having died - and I don't believe that the angels came down from Heaven and had children with the daughters of men, either, making a race of giants. Mankind didn't need any help to turn into a bunch of a-holes on their own! We did it ourselves, without any help from aliens/angels.
I do believe that The Book of Enoch is endlessly interesting as an historical document. I'm not going to pretend I've read the entire thing, darlings :) But I did find a few comments in the earliest chapters that caught my interest:
Ch. 7, Verse 10:
Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.
Ch. 8, Verse 3:
Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots.
My interest was in the comments about "dividing of roots and trees" and "dividers of roots." What on earth did that mean?
I first considered and then rejected that it had something to do with some sort of farming or agricultural practices, because the practice was mentioned in conjunction with "sorcery," "sorcerers" and "incantations." I thought it might have something to do with divination. I'm interested in ancient divinatory practices because there is research that suggests such practices were often closely-linked to the development of ancient board games and other gambling-type games (such as knuckle-bones and dice). Despite the biblical injunctions against the use of divination and fortune-telling that is a recurrent theme in the history of the ancient Israelites, there were accounts of approved usage of "lots" and in some ancient civilizations lots were made of wood - hence a linkage to "trees" or perhaps "tree roots."
Not much to go on. And, as usual, my research took me all over the place, and I learned some interesting things about subjects not at all related to what I wanted to find out! Not that I did thorough or even logically coherent research - I spent a few hours online only (but may revisit this subject privately at a later time). Do you want to know all the contortions I went through and false trails I followed to track down the little bit of information that led me to believe my initial suspicisions were correct? Nah - I won't bore you with that - this is a blog post, not a scholarly article!!!
I did learn that ancient Taoists practiced "root divination" using the roots of bamboo, and that although its first usage is not recorded, the practice is considered very ancient. Here is a brief description of the practice:
First, pray in front of the god and tell him your problem and ask for his guidance, then cast the two pieces of bamboo root on the ground and make a judgment according to whether the pieces land on the obverse or reverse side. There are three possibilities: two obverse, two reverse, and one obverse and one reverse. Two obverse sides are called positive bamboo roots: this result implies neither good nor bad luck. Two reverse sides are called negative bamboo roots, and are a sign of ill luck. The third possibility is called holy bamboo roots or successive bamboo roots, and indicates good luck, meaning that the god has accepted your request.
The practice may be linked to the "Heavenly Empress" and Guanyin - references to Chinese goddesses.
The practice has continued right into modern times. The photo at the beginning of this article is of "divination blocks" carved from bamboo root from a private collection.
Brief research into the online version of Strong's Hebrew Dictionary yielded some interesting results:
7080
qacamkaw-sam'
a primitive root; properly, to distribute, i.e. determine by lot or magical scroll; by implication, to divine:--divine(-r, -ation), prudent, soothsayer, use (divination).
7081
qecemkeh'-sem
from 'qacam' (7080); a lot: also divination (including its fee), oracle:--(reward of) divination, divine sentence, witchcraft.
7082
qacackaw-sas'
a primitive root; to lop off:--cut off
See also:
7059
qamatkaw-mat'
a primitive root; to pluck, i.e. destroy:--cut down, fill with wrinkles.
7060
qamalkaw-mal'
a primitive root; to wither:--hew down, wither.
7061
qamatskaw-mats'
a primitive root; to grasp with the hand:--take an handful.
The ancient Hebrew roots (pun!) obviously suggested the cutting down of trees and making blocks to use for divination, or the cutting up of tree roots to use for the same practice.
General information on Daoist bamboo root divination: http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/religious-activities&rituals/daoist-folk-customs/pg4-8-12.asp
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=342581
Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (online):
http://www.htmlbible.com/sacrednamebiblecom/kjvstrongs
/FRMSTRHEB70.htm#S7080
Very interesting! I came across the "divider of roots" passage recently and have been wondering a lot about it. Thanks for your research!
ReplyDeleteIn Divine vision a prophet or oracle will be shown people as trees, a barren tree with no leaves is a non believer, a tree full of foliage is a strong believer who works hard to do God's works with a pure and bravery heart. A small sapline is a new born believer. A hedge full of foliage is a collective of people. Great trees are great believers but great believers, great kings, priests and prophets can break their bond with God if they make themselves higher than God. They can become barren and can burn and be chopped down.
ReplyDeleteI am only starting to understand this truth. My writings are poor due to my lack of understanding, they need to be worked on but take a look at www.hdanar.com for examples of trees seen in vision. The first book contains such samples and the book I am working on now shows many examples.
We must not chop down the trees, the Pharisees did enough of that. Ancient scriptures hold the truth but are only ibest interpreted by those who see as the authors of those scriptures saw. Sadly oracles and prophets are banished and silenced from the churches as they know the full truth. It is today as it was then.